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The Book of Gates is an Ancient Egyptianfunerary text dating from the New Kingdom. It narrates the passage of a newly
deceased soul into the next world,
corresponding to the journey of the sun though
the underworld during the hours of the night.
The soul is required to pass though a series of 'gates' at
different stages in the journey. Each gate is associated with a
different goddess, and requires that the deceased recognise the
particular character of that deity. The text implies that some
people will pass through unharmed, but that others will suffer
torment in a lake of fire.

Categories

The most famous part of the Book of Gates today refers to
the different races of humanity known to the Egyptians, dividing them up into four categories
that are now conventionally labelled "Egyptians", "Asiatics", "Libyans",
and "Nubians". These are depicted in
procession entering the next world.

The text and images associated with the Book of Gates appear in
many tombs of the New Kingdom, including all the pharaonic tombs
between Horemheb and Ramesses VII. They also appear in the tomb of Sennedjem, a worker in
the village of Deir
el-Medina, the ancient
village of artists and craftsmen who built pharonic tombs in the
New Kingdom.

The goddesses listed in the Book of Gates each have
different titles, and wear different coloured clothes, but are
identical in all other respects, wearing a five pointed star above
their heads. Most of the goddesses are specific to the Book of
Gates, and do not appear elsewhere in Egyptian mythology, and so it has been
suggested that the Book of Gates originated merely as a
system for determining the time at night, with the goddess at each
gate being a representation of the main star appearing during the
hour.